Results 81-100 of 3,320 for speaker:Bríd Smith in 'Dáil debates'

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Childcare Services (30 Apr 2024)

Bríd Smith: What are the Minister's general plans for increasing childcare places? Will he make a statement on the matter?

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Childcare Services (30 Apr 2024)

Bríd Smith: It would be lovely to hear the exact figures for the number of places that the Minister plans to increase by. It sounds like he has a plan, but to me and to all childminding organisations, it is complex and cumbersome. The Minister will be aware that in the Dublin area, almost 60% of providers have reported that they have severe waiting lists for childcare places. After housing, it is...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Childcare Services (30 Apr 2024)

Bríd Smith: I am aware of all the problems individual childcare centres have in increasing capacity and keeping going. I am also aware of how poorly paid and treated many childcare workers are, albeit that improvements are taking place. The last woman who contacted me about this prompted me to ask the question. She was stressed out of her mind about the fact that she could not get a place for her...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Childcare Services (30 Apr 2024)

Bríd Smith: 92. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if he will establish a publicly owned childcare service; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19266/24]

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Childcare Services (30 Apr 2024)

Bríd Smith: I hope this will expand on the conversation we have just had. Will the Minister and his Department establish a national, publicly-run, funded and owned childcare service?

Petrol and Diesel Excise Rate Increases: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (30 Apr 2024)

Bríd Smith: I welcome the Sinn Féin motion and the opportunity to discuss in the House again the cost of living and the impact it is having on people. Tomorrow, Social Justice Ireland will give a presentation in the audiovisual room. It would be well worth going to as Social Justice Ireland always has sharp analysis of what is happening to people at the bottom of our society. It is a...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (30 Apr 2024)

Bríd Smith: The programme for Government explicitly commits this Government to fully maintaining neutrality and the triple lock. In 2013, Deputy Micheál Martin, the current Tánaiste who wants a Bill brought before the Dáil to get rid of the triple lock, argued that the triple lock is at the core of our neutrality and he refused to accept the argument that it gives a veto to Russia over...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (30 Apr 2024)

Bríd Smith: There has not been one vetoed

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (30 Apr 2024)

Bríd Smith: Nonsense. Then leave the triple lock in place.

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (25 Apr 2024)

Bríd Smith: In the same week that thee was another serious warning about climate change from the EU’s Copernicus programme, which told us about the catastrophic challenge we were facing, is it not extraordinary that the Green Party’s leader – a member of the Government – would take a legal challenge against the Swiss women activists who won a court case and showed that the...

Disability Justice: Motion [Private Members] (17 Apr 2024)

Bríd Smith: I am sharing time with Deputy Mick Barry.

Disability Justice: Motion [Private Members] (17 Apr 2024)

Bríd Smith: What did you call me?

Disability Justice: Motion [Private Members] (17 Apr 2024)

Bríd Smith: In that case, I thank Bríd for her contribution. More seriously, the last point the Minister of State made about the optional protocol was very much Civil Service-speak. I refer to this being a matter of complexity, the need to progress the issue, have meetings and all the rest of it. How many years have disability campaigners, like those outside the gates now, been campaigning?...

Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Second Stage (16 Apr 2024)

Bríd Smith: Could I not take half a minute?

Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Second Stage (16 Apr 2024)

Bríd Smith: So the Ceann Comhairle wants me to shut up now and come back and do six minutes tomorrow.

Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Second Stage (16 Apr 2024)

Bríd Smith: Would it be okay to speak for two minutes now and not come back tomorrow?

Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Second Stage (16 Apr 2024)

Bríd Smith: Compared to an hour, two minutes is nothing.

Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Second Stage (16 Apr 2024)

Bríd Smith: My very last point is on the retired workers themselves. I have introduced a Bill to amend the Industrial Relations Act to give retired workers the right to be represented where their pensions have been interfered with. It is shocking to think that they can say nothing, as happened during the austerity years to all our public sector workers, particularly those in the semi-States. In goes...

Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Second Stage (16 Apr 2024)

Bríd Smith: As my mother used to say, brave are the chancers. You are some chancer.

Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Bill 2024: Second Stage (16 Apr 2024)

Bríd Smith: This is something I have been talking about on behalf of various workers since I came in in 2016 and as workers' spokesperson for People Before Profit. There has been a real war on pensions, particularly defined benefit pensions, over the past ten years or so. The narrative is that we are living too long, and we cannot afford this, so we have to tackle it. Therefore, instead of longevity...